Al-Qaeda vows global terror campaign
A new audio tape, purportedly from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, has vowed to launch attacks on US citizens throughout the world.
The warning, broadcast on al-Arabiyya satellite TV channel yesterday, dated September 3, comes days before the second anniversary of the September 11 2001 atrocities and on the day when surface-to-air missiles were fired at an American military cargo plane taking off from Baghdad Airport.
Al-Qaeda is blamed for the heinous attacks in New York and Washington that killed about 3,000 people.
The voice on the tape reportedly belonged to Al-Qaeda spokesman Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Najdi.
He said: “We announce there will be new attacks inside and outside [the US] which would make America forget the attacks of September 11.
“We assure Muslims that al-Qaeda ranks have doubled.
“Our casualties are nothing compared to our conditions now. Our coming martyrdom operations will prove to you what we are saying.”
But the voice on the tape denied any connection with the killing of Shiite Muslim cleric, Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, and 83 others in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf last month.
“We strongly deny that al-Qaeda had any hand in this bombing which killed Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, violated the sanctity of one of God’s houses and killed innocent people,” the speaker said on the tape. “Our highest aim is to fight the Americans and kill them everywhere on earth and drive them out of Palestine, the Arabian peninsula and Iraq,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman claimed Americans and Jews killed Mr Hakim.
“They wanted to get rid of him because they know that his loyalty was to Iran.”
